Can Things Change?
by watchitstark
Summary: Regina decides that her and Emma need to start to get along, and Henry comes up with... inventive ways to help this along. Swan Queen/Remma.
1. Chapter 1

**Can Things Change?**

Regina sighed. Today had been most frustrating. It was starting to seem as though no one had more than two brain cells to share between them. Apart from Miss Swan, that is, who annoying seemed to be the only one with even a small amount of intelligence. It was just a shame that she was using them against her as opposed to with her, where she could be of a lot more use, in fact, Regina could think of quite a few ways to make use of her, but it wasn't going to happen until they stopped trying to tear the other apart every time they saw the other. She needed to sort this out, but the only thing that she could come up with was to bed her. Which she shouldn't even be thinking of anyway, and it wasn't like she wanted to, she had no idea why that was what had come to mind.

* * *

Henry was late. This was Regina's fault of course. It was the easiest way to knock off 10 or 15 minutes off of the time that she got to see their son. He was due to be coming for an hour or two as he was stuck on his homework and wanted Mary Margaret to help him, and he also wanted to see Emma. This meant that Mary Margaret would take his almost done homework and mark it, usually proving it all to be correct, and then he'd do the last question at home. Time was always spent with Emma whether there was homework to be done or not. There was a knock at the door which Emma quickly pulled open, Henry running over and clinging to her waist, a motion which still surprised her, but she stroked his hair softly and hugged him back purely out of instinct.

"I'll be back to collect him at six o'clock." Emma looked up at the imposing Mayor, surprised by the way that her face was not sporting the usual harsh look she reserved for the blonde alone.

"Okay," Emma replied softly, finding herself unable to resist giving her a small smile, which was returned, then the brunette was gone. Henry drew himself out of the hug, a look of amazement on his face.

"You guys didn't fight!" For someone who was convinced that Regina was the Evil Queen he looked really rather pleased.

"No, we didn't," Emma smiled down at the boy. "I hope it's a sign of things to come."

* * *

When Regina came to pick Henry up, again no harsh words were exchanged and the brunette was pleased, especially when Henry commented on it in the car.

"Mom, are you trying to become friends with Emma?"

"I don't know whether we're going to become friends or if we'll just be civil towards each other, but I'm just trying to stop all the arguing," and get her into bed, her mind couldn't resist adding. A grin had spread across Henry's face which Regina returned, a real, honest to God, grin. The first in years.

"Emma makes you happy." Henry noted sometime later, over dinner. He'd noticed the soft, hesitant smile that had been on her face throughout the conversation about the blonde.

"What? No, that's a ridiculous notion," she snapped out of it.

"Mom, I know, it's okay. Emma's the same. I think you guys should just do whatever makes you happy."

"What exactly are you saying?" she asked carefully.

"That you and Emma should, erm, okay, I watched a movie called imagine Me & You? I think that you guys should end up happy like they were."

"You wouldn't care if I was gay?"

"Of course not," he laughed. "This guy in one of my advanced classes thinks he's gay. Some of the other guys in the class knew and they were like, verbally attacking him and threatening to beat him up after school. I told him that if he continued I'd get you to crush him and then get Emma to arrest him. I think he misunderstood what kind of relationship you're presently in though because he called you dirty lesbians. So I called him a dirty hetero which shut him up while he tried to work out what I meant."

"I'm so proud of you," Regina said a little breathlessly, shocked by the compassion and understanding shown by a ten year old when many of her age group didn't understand.

"Why? I was just doing the right thing," he shrugged, confused.

"Yes, but many people who are supposedly smarter then you, people of my age and older even, don't understand."

"Well then they're just stupid," his face screwed up in confusion. "Nope, I still don't understand why they don't understand."

"I know, but there will always be people who are unhappy with other people's happiness." She knew what it was like to be so unhappy that you resented everyone else. Henry went quiet of the dinner, and ran off as soon as he had finished his plate and Regina would let him. He thought, though long and hard about how he could get them together. He had a plan. But he needed help.

* * *

"Hi Miss Blanchard!" he said brightly at break time the next day, surprising Mary Margaret while she was setting up the classroom for her next lesson.

"Henry!" she exclaimed, obviously surprised to see him inside on such a warm day. "What brings you in here?"

"I need help with something, but before I tell you, you have to promise not to tell Mum or Emma." She was relieved to hear that he was once again calling Regina "mum" without contempt in his voice, but she was also extremely worried about what this could be. Henry realised this because of the worried expression she was sporting. "I'm not in trouble, nor will it endanger anyone's life. I'm trying to make them happy." The teacher still regarded him suspiciously but nodded.

"Okay, I promise not to tell them, although I don't promise to help."

"Right, now here's what we've gotta do…"

* * *

Emma came running into the Mayor's office, panting, to find her sat rather calmly at her desk.

"What? What happened?"

"Miss Swan, please elaborate?" the brunette's confusion showed on her face.

"I just got a call, the person said that there was a guy with a gun threatening you?"

"No one's been here, it seems as though you've been pranked."

The blonde groaned and ran a pale hand through her hair. "Ugh, I'm not usually this gullible!"

The door slammed shut and the lock clicked into place. Emma immediately ran over to check whether it was locked. It was.

"Shit," she hissed, banging her head against it.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: I can't remember if Regina actually has a sofa in her office. That is not what is important here. So if it bothers you, then the office is AU, kay?**_

"Could you get it open?" Regina questioned, still seated behind her desk.

"I haven't messed with lock picks for quite a long time, and I could probably kick it down but I'm not sure you'd be terribly please with the result."

"You'd have to pay for it."

"Which I can't, so it looks like we're stuck."

"You're not trying terribly hard to get out," Regina observed as Emma flopped down onto the sofa in the corner of her office.

"No, I know, I figured I could manage to get a quick nap in while I wait for someone to let us out. I mean even you can't complain about my continued existence for too long, right?"

Regina laughed. "I'm sure I could do if I really wanted to."

"You'd get bored eventually, right? Maybe you'd let off some steam and then we could be nice in front of Henry?" she laughed.

"I suppose," she reclined in her chair.

"Do you have a list? You strike me as a list writing sort of person."

"Oh yes, it has at least 20 reasons on it."

"You could lull me to sleep with all the reasons you hate me?"

Regina smirked. "Okay, so Number 1; you're my son's birth mother. Number 2; you're trying to take my son away from me. Number 3; you keep on claiming that you're not trying to do number 2. Number 4; Henry likes you. Number 5; you go along with his fairytale theory. Number 6; you're all friendly with everyone. Number 7; you managed to become Sheriff somehow. Number 8; you and Henry always seem to be plotting something. Number 9; you're new and I like routine. Number 10; if you track record is anything to go by then you're just going to get up and leave again. Number 11; I think I might actually be bothered if you leave, I'm almost starting to get used to you. Number 12; it'll crush Henry and Miss Blanchard and basically everyone else and I'll have to put up with everyone wandering around looking like someone just kicked their favourite puppy. Number 13; you dye your hair blonde without even bothering to get the roots. Number 14; you stole Graham from me. Number 15; it's your fault that Miss Blanchard and Mr Nolan are all sickeningly happy together. Number 16; you saved me from that stupid fire which means I owe you. Number 17; you've made a deal with Gold. Number 18; you're an idiot, but still manage to be one of the most interesting people around here. Number 19; you're all goody-goody but have this conflicted thing going on. Number 20; you don't care about your past which annoys me because I should have been able to use it against you." Emma laughed openly at several of them.

"That's hilarious," she smiled. "I still don't want to take Henry away from you," she looked over at her earnestly. "Honestly. I never did. He needs you, you're his mother."

"And you better remember it," the brunette sighed. "I can't lose him, you know I can't."

"I know, which is another reason why I would never take him from you. I can't even imagine. It would crush you."

"You're not supposed to know that."

"I know. But I do."

Regina sighed and spun her chair around so her back was facing the blonde. "You always seem to know. But I don't know anything about you, not anything personal; your background checks don't bring that up."

"So what, do you want me to talk about myself?"

"Yes."

"Okay, erm. You know, I'm not that interesting?"

"You'll think of something."

"Uhm, my favourite colour is red? I like my hot chocolate with cinnamon in. I don't trust easily," she paused. "I move around from place to place because I don't like it when people start to recognise me. I've never had a steady relationship. Even though I had Henry I'm actually, for the most part, gay."

Regina spun around in her chair. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"That I was gay?" Emma looked taken aback. "Well you never asked," she laughed. "Also, I always just assumed that I screamed gay or something as Mary Margaret and Ruby both guessed. I just assumed that you would know because you do present yourself with this all-knowing kind of image and I haven't exactly been hiding it."

"I think it's the princess hair that confuses people, especially as you dye it blonde."

"Well I look better with long blonde hair! I had short, dark hair in prison, and as soon as I got out I started dying it, and it took me forever to grow it all back."

"Apparently prison's full of lesbians."

"Not quite. You're never left on your own so it's not like there's a chance for anything to happen anyway. And none of them are hot anyway. The hot ones always manage to stay out of prison somehow."

"I bet you were hot when you were eighteen," the brunette noted absentmindedly.

"Of course. But I was pregnant, remember?"

"You must have been one of the youngest?"

"Yep, I'd only turned 18 about a month before I was sent to jail, but that meant I ended up with the big kids," she laughed.

"I've never been to jail. Well, I've had a day in lock-up here and there but nothing that's stuck."

"Of course it hasn't stuck," Emma laughed. "Things never seem to stick to you, do they? Hey, actually, you said that you bet I was hot at eighteen. I thought you weren't gay?"

"I'm not, technically, but I can appreciate the female form."

"Uhm, Regina, I hate to break it to you –" they both cracked up.

"I know, I know, I just don't identify as gay. I was friends with this group of lesbians once and they used to kind of try to push me into identifying as gay."

"Oh yeah, sometimes that happens," Emma shrugged. "I don]'t really think that it should matter what you identify as, or if you even identify as anything at all. I identify as gay, but oftentimes it's not that easy to put a label on it. Also, just because you've found yourself attracted to more than the occasional woman does not mean that you should immediately have to identify as gay."

"You're not as stupid as I first thought." The brunette laughed.

"People are so restrictive when it comes to labelling, whether they're labelling themselves or other people, and I don't think that it should matter, actually." Regina cocked her head to the side, considering, and then got up and joined Emma by the sofa, sitting opposite her on the coffee table.

"You again prove that you're smarter than you look. Where have you summoned this brain from, or has it been hiding under you're princess hair all this time."

Emma laughed. "I thought I'd just whip it out at some point and surprise you." They lapsed into a surprisingly comfortable silence and then they heard the lock turn and Henry walked in."Hey guys, why was the door locked from the outside?" he asked, innocently.

"I don't know, someone locked us in, probably for laughs."

"Well you didn't kill each other," he remarked cheerfully.

"No, which is probably what they had been hoping for," Regina smirked. "Although killing someone in a locked room is a remarkably stupid thing to do, as it means that everybody knows who's to blame."

Emma laughed. "It's a fair point. If you're going to kill someone then you may as well kill them well and get away with it. What are you doing here anyway, kid?"

"Neither of you came to pick me up from school, and Mum always says when that happens that I should come to her office and she'll drive me the rest of the way home when she's free," he said with an innocent smile.


End file.
